What Happens to Younger Workers When Older Workers Don’t Retire

Nicola Bianchi

Jin Li

Michael Powell

November 16, 2018

For years in the world of symphony orchestras, available positions for oboe talent were scarce. Young oboists waited for chairs at top orchestras to open up, but many principal oboists who had held their positions for decades simply weren’t retiring. It’s impossible to know how many younger players gave up, changed professions, or lingered in the lower ranks bitterly for years. In the early 2000s, however, many of the senior oboists began to retire. Those departures freed up spots at the top, which freed up spots below that, and so on. Advancement for oboists was suddenly possible. One promising young oboist described the moment as a “gift from heaven.”

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